Tokyo 2020: Chinese volleyball captain Zhu Ting to become first woman to carry China’s flag at Summer Olympics
- This year’s opening ceremony will be the first that allows one male and one female flag-bearer as part of a drive to promote women in sport
- Taekwondo champion Zhao Shuai will join Zhu at the ceremony
Zhu Ting, the captain of the women’s team, will jointly carry the national flag with male taekwondo champion Zhao Shuai at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games on Friday.
Zhu is an icon of Chinese volleyball, who has won multiple most valuable player awards at different levels of competition since making her debut for the national under-18 team in 2011.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s best players, she led the national team to success at the 2016 Olympics and 2019 World Cup and she is now a deputy of the National People’s Congress.
Zhao made history by scoring the country’s first gold medal in the men’s taekwondo at the Rio Olympics.
China has usually chosen male basketball players, including NBA star Yao Ming, to carry the flag at the Olympic opening ceremony, but this year the men’s team failed to qualify.
Two women, the speed skaters Yang Yang and Wang Meng, carried the flag at the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies in 2006 and 2018.
Covid-19 cases rise despite Games pledge of 85 per cent vaccination rate
This year will be the first time that teams are allowed to select both male and female flag-bearers as part of the International Olympic Committee’s efforts to increase gender equality.
This year China’s Olympic team has more than twice as many women as men, with 298 female athletes compared with 133 male competitors.
Its 431 athletes, the largest team sent to an overseas games, will be competing in a record 225 events.
The Olympic Games, already delayed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, take place against a backdrop of growing concern about the ongoing risk from the pandemic.
